Page 6 of Twice as Tempting

Kelly rummaged around in her fridge and came up with a lone Guinness that might have been left over from the last time Damian had been over. “It’s been in there a while,” she said and watched his lips curl up when she handed him the beer.

“It’ll do.”

Kelly sat in the chair across from Damian and took a long sip from her bottled water. She felt overheated from her workout, or maybe it was from the company, who stared at her intently with a masked expression.

Not a fan of small talk, Damian plunged right in. “My mom is having this dinner thing tomorrow night, and she wondered…I wondered…if you’d like to come.”

Part of her wanted to give him a hard time for waiting so long to ask, but the sensitive side of her decided to let him off the hook.

“Sure,” she answered and watched him visibly relax.

“You sure your date won’t mind?”

Is he asking just to needle me, or does he really care? “I’ve only gone out with Ken a couple of times. It’s not like we’re…a couple.”

Damian’s eyes flickered with satisfaction at her response. “Ok, then. Six o’clock on Friday.” He set the empty beer bottle on the glass table in front of him and stood up as if to leave.

Kelly fought a wave of disappointment but stood up too. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

“Well, yeah,” Damian replied and shoved his hands in his pockets again.

She could interpret his silence in a number of ways, but the last thing Kelly wanted was to argue with him again. She decided to leave well enough alone, although she was dying to ask him a slew of questions. Best to go with a simple one for now.

“Did you get a new truck?” The last time Damian was in town, he had flown in and had used a rental car to get around. Now that he was supposedly back for good…

“It’s used, but the guy I bought it from kept it in good condition.”

“It suits you,” she said. “Big and manly.” As soon as the words were out, she wished she could retract them, especially when Damian shot her that smug grin.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said and sauntered to the door.

Kelly admired the way he filled out his worn-in jeans, but she quickly averted her eyes when he turned back around.

“Friday night,” he said, and she nodded, afraid to open her mouth again.